November 10, 2011

Everest News: Escape From Lukla! Thousands of Trekkers Stranded

Rumor on the trail that the Lukla airport had shut down started a week ago. We were still making our push to Everest Base Camp (17,701 feet) and Kala Patthar (18,315 feet). The weather was starting to change, and afternoons brought a thick fog and limited visibility. Temperatures plummeted to minus 5-degrees F at night. Our guide didn’t seem concerned; five days later, it was a different story.

Snuggled into the Himalaya at 9,000 feet in elevation, Lukla is the "major" portal in and out of the Everest region. Its tiny airport is ranked as one of the most dangerous in the world.

If the weather didn’t lift, we would not be able to hike into Lukla as planned. Two thousand trekkers were already stranded there. All the hotel rooms were booked. People were sleeping where they could—on dining room floors, in hallways, and inside their tents. Food was being rationed as supply planes were grounded in Kathmandu. The few airlines and helicopter service that service Lukla, were helpless.

William, a trekker from England, was exhausted when he and his team stumbled into the little town on November 1. After four weeks of exhausting, high-elevation trekking in the Khumbu, William was ready to fly back to Kathmandu and then home. He and his group checked into one of the dozens of basic, no heat lodges, thinking the next day the airport would surely open. Four days later, they were still waiting. They made the decision to hike 70 kilometers to Jirli. It would take four days but they were able to fly back to Kathmandu on November 8.

We met the same day at Rum Doodles, a popular trekkers' restaurant in the Thamel section of Kathmandu. Named after a mystical 40,000 and ½ foot tall mountain, anyone who summits Mount Everest gets a free dinner for life. William was wearing an “Escape from Lukla” shirt. It summed up the situation to a tee (literally!).

For me, my escape from Lukla was less dramatic. On November, 7 we awoke to beautiful skies. It was the day we were making our final push to Lukla. We could hear planes and helicopters in the distance. Life had returned to the tiny airport. We entered the town by late afternoon. We saw hundreds of trekkers pushing their way into airline stores, trying to rebook flights. Only a handful of 20-seater planes were making the 30-minute runs to and from Kathmandu. It is going to take days to get everyone sorted. More bad weather is expected by the end of the week.

That being said, military precision was what I witnessed the next day at the airport. One plane would land and within five minutes they turned it around. Our flight was six hours late, but I wasn’t complaining. Some people had been stuck for over a week. I was glad to be traveling with Intrepid, an Australian based adventure travel company. Our flights were pre-booked and our Sirdar (head guide) took care of any airport politics.

Comments

While routine flight delays and bad weather of several days are common at Lukla, the week of delays that Payge describes was extraordinary, and in fact a bit understated. Toward the end of the week that she describes, all the major networks here at home, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC were featuring daily reports of the deteriorating situation at Lukla, half a world away. It is NOT routine or typical for two thousand or so travellers and trekkers to be trying to exit Lukla all at once. It was sheer pandemonium at one point toward the end of the week.

Fortunately for the locals though, folks that depend on tourism, it was a weeklong period of poor weather that happens maybe once every few decades. Travellers and trekkers planning to go there in the future should NOT be disuaded. The odds of experiencing a similar event to the same extent is exceeding rare. Excellent reporting, Payge!

Payge, flight delays and bad weather in Lukla are a very normal occurance. Waiting 3, 4 or 6 days is not uncommon. Shame on you for using the headline 'thousands evacuated from Lukla'. Evacuation is a word for serious incidents or terrible natural disasters and incites fear into people. The only thing that happened in Lukla was bad weather in which intelligent Nepalase pilots refuse to fly in. Anyone who has experience in the mountains knows the unpredictability of the weather. Oct/Nov are high season for trekking so unfortunately many people had to stay much longer than they anticipated. The tour company you travelled with had nothing to do with your 'luck' of getting out on time. You were just fortunate enough to have a confirmed seat on the day the flights started moving - if your flight had been scheduled on a day that no flights left, you too would be added to the waitlist. All people who fly into Lukla have confirmed reservations with excellent tour guides working on their behalf! Stick to reporting facts & journaling and not sensationalism!